Well I have changed my mind on the 9800Gx2reasons=-I would need to upgrade my PSU because of the power requirements-Would be a tight squeeze in my case if it would fit at all-Dual PCB design, hot,heavy,BIG-all that added up plus the $600 it cost to begin with is just not worth it,when I can get a very competitive card for $450 and not have to do those upgrades. This allows me to do some other upgrades I have been wanting to do. Such as upgrade my sound card to the X-fi Xtreme gamer sound card, and 7.1 surround sound speakers for my PC! Plus I'm going back to XP, Vista has finally broke me. I will go back in the future but for now I'm XP bound. Now to install and rework all of this ugghh!

Unless benchmarks with release drivers prove it to be slower we have a winner: I couldn't pass up a 9800!I mean really it comes down to the name. First enthusiast level card I will have had since the 6800 (best card ever made, It can even run Crysis bless its old soul)EVGA FTW!

-UPDATE: 2-28-08So as of lately I have been leaning more toward the Nvidia Card because of its slightly higher speed and plus the fact that its Nvidia. But Check this outCross Fire X 4 GPU's in one box (a holy light shines down from the heavens!) But in some benchmarks showed a %50 increase over the single card. Thats pretty good. And of course thats immature drivers.

UPDATE:3-3-08So right now I'm about 85% convinced of buying the 3870x2 instead of the Geforce 9800Gx2

3dmark06 score of the 9800 are on level with the 3870x2And with the price of the 9800 likely to be around $600, and take in account that the 3870x2 has 5.1 HD audio built in,DX10.1 and SM 4.1 support all on a single PCB opposed to the 9800Gx2's 2 PCB solution looks like ATI might have won this round. Of course 3dmark doesn't really represent game performance so I'm not totally on board yet.

So this whole PC gaming alliance thing..its pretty cool. In my perfect world this is where this holy union would change the world make PC gaming huge and possibly form a new nation! But these are corporations in this alliance. Activision and Epic the only 2 devs. And corporations' #1 goal is to make money, they could be doing this to make money by helping the market overall, or they could be making money by other means (im too tired to think of an example). Now I think this will be good for PC gaming while this alliance is made up of competitors they seem to realize the greater good in helping the market so that they all can succeed. Nvidia we know seems to already be taking steps toward doing what the alliance has set out to do by releasing Powerful cards for low prices. The 9600gt being a great example with the 8800GT being another. Now with the announcement of Gears of War 2 I wonder. Its a Microsoft published game. Its a game devolped by EPIC. And both of these entities are part of the PCGA so I believe a true test of their intentions would be to have GOW2 released day and date on the PC as the 360 version. Will it happen I don't think so. Should it happen. Yes, if both parties mean what they said when joining the PCGA.

So as some of you may know I've been looking for a Collectors edition of the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Amazon.com had it! I had to pay more than I wanted for it but for a Oblivion nut like me its worth it I guess.One of the main reason I got it was because of the mod community is crazy for this game. So many mods that go from just visual improvements (lighting, textures etc.) to things like personal preferences (UI color changes,Physics changes etc.) to crazy god mods like (Custom armor, skill changes, fan made races etc.) In the Xbox 360 version I spent about 80 hours in one of my characters, don't know about some of the others,(never even did the main quest line in the base game:P) So my life is over again.I like how the exterior goes well with Oblivion's overall art style, standard edition case did as well it was just a lighter tone.Inside presentation is very nice as well, opens like the Lord of the Rings extended DVD's, instead of just throwing a trashy dual disk jewel case inside. Also note the art work around and on the back, nice touch.This is the part I care least about but cool that they included it none the less, a "accurate" replication of the in game currency. And the also is this leather bound booklet that provides some brief history on the happenings of the game world another nice touch, and good for story buffs.

Overall I'm very impressed with what comes with it. Its rare that the special or collectors edition version of games is worth the extra premium but Bethesda and 2K (Bioshock also had a good collectors edition) seemed to have taken time to make a true collectors edition and something that would appeal to their die hard fans, instead of trying to squeeze 10 more bucks out of the customer.

So whats been going on yes a worthy update this time ;)Well I just fininshed Mass Effect and my mouth is still on the ground, yeah its good if you havent played it you should either go out and buy it or kill yourself because If you dont play on playing it you really dont diserve to live.Im glad to see games like Bioshock,COD 4 and The Orange box (still consider it a collection though). are getting top GOTY awards, they deserve them for sure. I was worried a bunch of xbots would rush to Halo 3's defense and pretend that its a great game, good mind you but its far from great like the other titles I just mentioned. Quick lesson: Bungie the bar has been raised, it was raised back in 04 when HL2 shipped and yet you still remain down there. So dont be surprised to see these games stealing the glory, because they have kept pace by getting to that level and further improving on the genre.

Also I plan on playing the free WOW trial. We'll see if the (what is it ? 11 million now or something?) monster MMO can make mah jaded self dig da warcraft. Im going to it with an open mind for sure but cant help but expect alot from what people have said and its HUGE user base.

Also in other news my life is better thanks to my finding out Battlefeild Heroes is not BF3 just a side project so if your wondering why I didnt kill myself its because I found that out in time. Would have been a shame had I not huh?lolI also plan on buying Oblivion for the PC, why? because I've been wanting to play it lately and I though hey I should play the version with mods, and high res textures so yeah I believe thats what Im going to do. Even though I have it on 360. Trying to track down a Special edition even thought the GOTY edition is out, Its one of my personal favorites so I want the extras. So goodbye until another time!

Then all you see is an Asian in a Box being dragged across the screen whil a rabbitmonkey T-Bags the dead EA exec. You'll pop out and kill the news people earning new never before seen achievements, by fatally killing them with a Luchbox "Gamecube"